Pyridoxal (PL) is one form of
vitamin B6.
Some medically relevant bacteria, such as those in the genera ''
Granulicatella'' and ''
Abiotrophia'', require pyridoxal for growth. This nutritional requirement can lead to the culture phenomenon of satellite growth. In ''in vitro'' culture, these pyridoxal-dependent bacteria may only grow in areas surrounding colonies of bacteria from other genera ("satellitism") that are capable of producing pyridoxal.
Pyridoxal is involved in what is believed to be the most ancient reaction of aerobic metabolism on Earth, about 2.9 billion years ago, a forerunner of the
Great Oxidation Event
The Great Oxidation Event (GOE) or Great Oxygenation Event, also called the Oxygen Catastrophe, Oxygen Revolution, Oxygen Crisis or Oxygen Holocaust, was a time interval during the Earth's Paleoproterozoic era when the Earth's atmosphere an ...
.
["Protein Domain Structure Uncovers the Origin of Aerobic Metabolism and the Rise of Planetary Oxygen", Gustavo Caetano-Anolles et al., published in Structure; paper available from University of Illinois News Bureau, 2012.]
See also
*
Pyridoxal phosphate
References
{{reflist
Vitamins
Hydroxypyridines
Aldehydes
3-Hydroxypropenals
Aromatic ketones